Cold Drinks and Warm Company
by Sunshine-hime
Summary: Rei finds his friends in front of his apartment back from a night out drinking, Haru passed out, and his own headache growing.


**So this is a giftfic for my very awesome friend fallingsnow, who introduced me to Applimon and encourages me so much in everything. I have another one in the works for her (a Voltron one!), which I'll be posting soon!**

**Takes place a little before "Take the Lead and I Will Follow," so Rei's feelings toward Haru are squish (as in platonic crush) in nature. Also everyone depicted is of legal drinking age in Japan, which is 20 and over.**

**Disclaimer: I do not own Digimon Universe: Applimon and make no profit from this work.**

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Rei opens his door to find none other than Astra and Yuujin, wearing oddly identical sheepish expressions on their faces. The only sources of light are shining from inside his apartment and the somewhat muted street lights below. Completely held up between the two of them is Haru slumped over, lightly snoring, and with a trail of drool as a gross finishing touch. Gatchmon is in chip form and in true bratty younger brother fashion is taking great pleasure in his Buddy's low point.

An amazing start to his night already.

Astra's face brightens and Rei is suddenly filled with dread. "Hey Rei! So don't be mad but Haru got kinda drunk."

Conversely Yuujin avoids making any sort of eye contact and it reminds Rei of how a child would look before telling their parents they did something wrong. "There's no 'kinda' about it Astra. He's completely wasted." He glances at Rei then averts his eyes again. "Sorry to bother you Rei but you were the closest place to the bar."

Rei crosses his arms, giving Yuujin and Astra the flattest stare he can muster. Despite Haru being safe and sound, he can't help but be annoyed and a bit concerned at his best friend's state. Not to mention being disturbed right before getting some much needed rest after finishing his latest freelance coding project. At least Hajime is properly asleep and doesn't have to see this sorry sight.

"Explain to me how _Haru's_ the one who got drunk when this outing was supposed to celebrate _Astra _turning 20." Yuujin flinches, guilt heavy on his face, and Rei almost feels bad before seeing the time on his digital clock.

12:34AM

Ah. He feels that sliver of sympathy melt away.

"Please don't be mad at Yuujin, it wasn't his fault. Honest!" And that would be Offmon, whose eyes are large and watery.

Rei opens his mouth to somehow make Offmon stop doing that because that expression is dangerously close to Hajime's own puppy dog look and his older brother instincts are screaming at him to _protectprotectprotect_.

Hackmon thankfully saves him when he meets them all at the doorway. "Maybe you should invite them in first Rei. It's chilly outside right now."

He wordlessly walks back inside to give them space. Once they lay down Haru on the couch and everyone else is seated on the floor with Rei on his computer chair, Rei finds himself a little less annoyed. A little.

"Listen Rei, don't blame Astra for this. It, uh, seems I'm not very good at judging drunkenness until it...well…" And he waves his hand in the general direction of Haru's sleeping form. Rei wishes Eri or Ai went with them too but they're far too busy to be hanging out in college bars on short notice.

"And he was really feeling those drinks too!" Musimon adds helpfully as he appears on his Buddy's shoulder.

Astra makes a disgusted face. "Turns out I don't really feel drinking myself. That stuff's gross."

Rei's temple throbs and he feels Hackmon rub his back, soothing at least some of the stress away. "I have an opening shift tomorrow so I need you two to tell me what happened and then get out."

Hackmon sighs but neither Yuujin nor Astra seem to take offense. Instead Yuujin speaks up, face still pinched. "Well it wasn't anything major. After the last of Astra's lectures for the semester, we headed over to Koharu for drinks."

_Haru, Astra, and Yuujin were sitting around with a large group of people — at least ten or so — in a private booth at a local bar Koharu near Astra's uni. It was a nice place: soft lighting, a pleasant wait staff, with bar seats in the front and the smaller booths in the back. To accommodate the size of the group, they had to combine two tables together and create a makeshift booth by moving around the paper dividers. It was almost completely blocked off from the other patrons for extra privacy. Clearly for all the trouble these people had to have made reserves in advance, Astra observed._

_The three were called over by the group of young people almost immediately after entering. Haru was a bit modest about the invite but Astra and Yuujin managed to convince him to accept in the end. It just made sense: who would honestly turn away some good company, especially when said company was treating? Astra considered it a surprise birthday present and just like his father would say: "a padded jacket is an acceptable gift, even in summer."_

_The group ordered some appetizers and a round of beers and everyone introduced themselves first Haru, Astra, and Yuujin and then the others in clockwise order: Eiji, Akiko, Takashi, Chie, Eikichi, Anko, Date, Sou, Daichi, and Natsuko._

_Yuujin looked around the impressive setup as if seeing it for the first time. "So, what's the special occasion?"_

_Eiji, who looks like the kind of guy who would be super serious and uptight, has a huge smile on his face now as he answers. "Well, we're all law students and well, not to brag or anything but we managed to pass the bar exam together."_

_Astra wolf whistled cause jeez, all of them at once?_

_Haru's eyes widen and he beams at them, shyness all but forgotten after hearing something like that. "That's amazing! I'm so happy for all of you. You all must have worked hard together to accomplish that." And the students looked pleased with themselves._

_"Isn't it like a 20 percent passing rate? But you all did it together in one go?" Yuujin chimes in._

_"Actually that's why I think we managed something like that in the first place. Because we all helped and supported each other." And Anko high fived Chie over Eikichi, who ducked under their arms and chuckled. _

_"So what brings you gentlemen here?" Sou asked and got a good natured shove from Daichi for being so formal._

_Yuujin clasped Astra's shoulder. "It's our friend's 20th birthday, so we wanted to celebrate his first drink in a more relaxed setting."_

_"Oh he'll be drinking alright when we get through with him!" And Daichi downed the rest of his beer as his friends cheered. Astra laughed, glad he got to celebrate with such fun people. He knew he would be really feeling this birthday. Though this beer was another story, as he took another sip._

_About an hour in and amidst all the chicken skewers, crab croquettes, okonomiyaki, and karaage, Akiko ordered a couple rounds of sake shots and suggested they all play some drinking games._

_They started off with some pin pon pan, which Astra was pretty good and didn't down a single shot; after all, it was like keeping up a rhythm and no one could best him at that. _

_And as it turned out, Haru was awful at it. He kept losing track of what order they were in and so the others kept picking him as a running joke. Yuujin stepped in and started messing up on purpose to divert their attention but Haru already got several shots in by that point. Astra was impressed, he took them pretty well with no signs of being anywhere close to drunk yet. And since Yuujin wasn't even batting an eye, this must have been normal. Who knew Haru had such high tolerance?_

_Takashi ordered shochu shots after that and suggested they play King's Game next, with a special rule that before the chosen does their dare they have to take a shot first. After getting enough chopsticks and marking them with numbers and a red line for the King, they draw. _

_Yuujin was two, Astra five, and Haru nine. King went to Chie and she made Yuujin give a piggyback ride to number six. What they didn't expect was for Yuujin to easily lift up Eikichi on his shoulders, so he decided to do a bunch of Ultraman poses (and Astra thought he would never see references to that) and nearly toppled them over._

_Next round was Haru who had to sit on number five's lap. At this point, Haru was a little flush and loosened up since he ordered a couple beers on the side while waiting his turn and so he played it up, adding a hug while giggling and making poor Anko blush._

_So it continued and they even got Astra at one point, in which he found he enjoyed shochu even less than the beer. But the energy was great and everyone was so chill and fun loving. The dares never got too out of hand either, mostly staying with hugs or slightly embarrassing dance moves and poses. Yuujin was forced to sing an enka ballad and was that a hilariously unpleasant experience, though the way Haru riled him up you would have thought he was Kiyoshi Hikawa._

_They all took a break once people started having trouble sitting up straight. A few went outside to smoke while the rest stuck around at the table either talking or dozing._

_Haru, who was oddly quiet for a good ten minutes, stood up suddenly. "I'm gonna, I'm-I'm getting more stuff for us guys," then immediately stumbled. _

_Oh boy. _

_Astra stood with him and kept him stable on his feet. "I think you might have had too much to drink buddy," and made Haru sit back down again._

_Haru swiveled his head way too fast and blinked at him, pupils blown out and eyes bleary. "I'm good Astra. I promise. Just gonna, having a little fuuuun." The last word ends up slurred and Haru giggled. "Yuujin! Come drink with me!" And he lifted up his glass to drink from, not realizing it's empty._

_"Aw buddy, I didn't think you were this bad off," Yuujin said as he finally came around to them and took the glass from a Haru determined to drink air. Before then he had propped Date against the window so he could nap a little. And before that got Chie and Sou some water. "You were handling it pretty well until now." He clicked his teeth. "I should have been watching you better."_

_Astra knew Gatchmon, who couldn't emerge with all these people around, had to be cracking up at all this from his Applidrive. And he was definitely laughing at Yuujin, who squeaked very loudly when Haru decided to kiss him right on the nose. _

_To be fair Astra laughed at that too. "I guess we gotta get him home somehow."_

_Haru was leaning on Yuujin and he had an arm wrapped around his friend to keep him steady. "But Haru lives too far away. For that matter, we all do."_

_Astra considered it for a moment, and then a thought hit him like lightning. "What about Rei's place? He's pretty close by, we can just drop Haru off there for the night."_

_"He's not going to be happy about this."_

_"Eh, we'll cross that bridge when we get to it."_

"Thanks by the way Astra. I really appreciate this midnight reunion." While the story makes sense, Rei still isn't happy that it happened in the first place. But still, at least they thought to bring him to Rei, who's completely sober and can properly watch out for him instead of finding out the next day about some freak accident.

"At least you can watch over Haru and cook him a nice breakfast when he wakes up." Hackmon is placid as always, coming back from the kitchen with two glasses of water that he hands to Astra and Yuujin. And also, how does he know exactly what he's thinking? He can't be _that _obvious. Then he looks at Haru's peaceful face as he sleeps and feels his own heat up. Dammit.

"Oh, I love omurice! You should make that!" Offmon sounds so genuinely happy it nearly makes Rei smile.

"Aww how sweet. Rei's gonna take good care of his best friend." And then Astra and Musimon makes kissing noises at each other. There goes that sappy feeling. At least Yuujin beats Rei to bopping Astra on the back of his head to make him stop.

"Seriously though, thank you so much for this. I'll stop by later on today to pick him up-"

Rei huffs and Yuujin trails off, clearly confused. "It's fine. And you two are staying here as well. I don't need a bunch of drunks wandering around the streets."

Astra chokes on his water and even Yuujin blinks and stares. Is him being nice really that surprising? Bunch of jerks. "I'm going to bed. Spare futons are in the closet by the kitchen and I'm waking you all up early for breakfast." He doesn't wait for their response before making his way to his own bedroom.

He hears the light chatter from his room, now that everyone seems to have recovered from the "shock" of him doing something nice. Gatchmon is especially happy to be getting a free meal out of it judging from his excited whispering.

It's nearly one now when he checks his clock and Hackmon bids him goodnight. Maybe he'll call out from work once he wakes up. His coworkers can handle the cafe without him for once in their lives and he can actually enjoy his friends' company. Not that he'll ever tell them that. It'll go to their heads.

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**Her prompt for this one was simply drunk Haru, and so in usual fashion I had to attach an actual plot to it. Hope y'all enjoyed it regardless!**


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